บท 24: Chapter 24
After a while, Darius woke again while hearing knocking on the door. The moon was already rising in the sky.
"Come in!"
Elvira came in with meat stew and cheese and lighter apple cider. While downing the bowl's content, Darius asked Elvira what she had been up to. She looked hesitant and nervous but also exhausted. Her usually clean clothing was full of dust.
"Darius, I mean master. Ah, there was no information on the folds. Just one line at the back of one book mentioned that, hypothetically, there were no limits with folds. The limitations only vary depending on the personal abilities." Concluded Elvira shakingly.
"I see. So, what now? Do I need a thousand folds next time?"
"I don't know, and I fear I have never heard about this." Answered Elvira meekly and quietly.
Darius gave a long pass and thought on possibilities and hardships. The unknown made him restless despite of tiredness. What would become of him? Only one certainty he could rely on. He would need more information.
"Elvira, you said that the point when acolytes can do spells vary. What would I need to be able to form the first spell?"
"Well, master, you have a high concentration of particles, so it might even succeed now. Also, your sea of consciousness must be enough for the spell model to maintain the spell permanently; otherwise, you would have to reread the spell after each use for hours or even days. But I don't think that will be a problem because your folding amount in meditation determines the quality and broadness of your sea of consciousness."
"yes, what about the particles?"
" I don't know, however, what the limitations are. My own particles were too separated. I have one-third of each basic element and earth element for less than 10 per cent. To be able to cast even the simplest spells, the rank two acolytes will need at least over 50 per cent concentration of particles within the body. I might not be able to cast magic even at rank three but maybe at four. But that is miles away from rank two that I currently have."
"Yes, I hope we can fix your body a bit though these alchemical mixtures really messed things up."
Suddenly Elvira raised from the chair and exclaimed excitedly, "I'm happy that master tries to help me, it might still take years, but I do my best in all my tasks if I can ever cast magic."
"Sure, although I have my selfish reasons for helping all the slaves to develop more. So that they don't die, and I don't have to buy new ones to replace them."
"Yes, master."
"But I am still glad; smiling faces are better than crying ones."
"We are thankful we could have a far worse master; some slave owners even kill slaves for fun or torture them."
"Ah, what a lovely idea", answered Darius while Elvira's face changed completely.
"Eh, sorry, I was just joking, my dark humour."
"I know, master, but some slaves might remember these things wrongly for years and decades and act on them. Despite the curse of obedience and training, very rarely, some slaves might be able to circumvent these limits. It is scarce and needs very costly resources, but some people could try to affect your troops from outside. In nobility, this happens all the time, and how they treat their slaves is so bad that it is a very easy ploy for their political opponents to abuse their slaves for schemes and spying."
"Yes, we have also talked with Mr. Trader on this part. It seems possible, but the cost is around hundreds of thousands of gold coins, at least in some cases even millions. But yes, better not to anger nobility too much."
Darius stood and sat on the stool so Elvira could clean him and replace the already dirty linens on the bed. He understood that receiving better treatment than average, slaves would be more dedicated and less prone to accept bribes.
"Elvira?"
"Hmm, this dark stuff on your body is like tar. It doesn't come off very easily." Elvira snapped back to focus. "Oh, what did you want to ask?"
"Make sure that all the slaves know that if someone is trying to bribe them, they have to come to tell me or you about it, and we will pay the bribe three times higher when we can make sure that the attempt happen."
"Yes, master, I will tell them."
"Good, we can never be sure with nobility or mages."
"Yes, master, now that we are making only the gold trade, mages are not interested at all, but when we earn more magic stones, a lot of higher acolytes will be interested. We have to be careful in that case, master."
Darius sighed tiredly on the stool and watched dirty soap water on the floor. The dark circles waved whenever water ran from the scrubbing linen. He would need many more magic stones to continue improving as a mage or support mage slaves. It would also mean much higher profits, but the cost was a hundred or even a thousand times higher than he possessed now.
After returning to bed, Darius asked Elvira to give them one book with a black cover. After Elvira left, Darius started leafing the pages of the book. Based on the folding amount of his meditation, he assumed that he could use negative particle spells, but to be on the safe side, it would have to be a rank two acolyte spell model. The gigantic book of 800 pages only had around 20 spells in it. After reading the requirements and using pages of each spell, Darius started thinking. There was the possibility of learning either defensive, damaging, body enchanting spells or even variance of different damage spells in order of the particle amount spent on each spell. The spell power differed by the number of particles. In addition, if Darius could see, feel, and lead the particles, he could make more powerful spells. But this would need a more significant amount of concentration of particles in his body to be able to use them readily. Albeit his sea of consciousness seemed to be big enough in comparison to normal acolytes at this rank, he would still need proper apprehension of particles and large enough willpower to be able to speed the particle process in spells. None of these things were sure. And because of this fact, Darius didn't pick up damage spells or any other spell that would need fast casting, which would only be used in close combat. Still, he had different choices of defensive and body-enchanting spells. The body enchanting was better than only a defensive spell because if the hit could not connect in the first place because of a faster body, then defensive measures would not be needed in the first place. Also, his fighting style was not open confrontation, and he usually used the environment in his favour. This meant he would benefit more from body enchantment than defensive spells.
*Then again* Darius was amused and turned pages. He stopped on one page. *Then again, why fight if you can avoid it entirely* He read the description of the spell murky familiar. What Darius could gather from the spell, he could cast it, but it needed considerable space for the intricate spell model. The spell model was almost double long in the pages in comparison to combat spells. The familiar could complete simple tasks, and the user of the spell could use it to see and hear things, albeit the workable distance would vary depending on the caster's conditions. Presumably, this additional connection to the familiar would drain even more negative particles so the familiar's view could not be used all the time.
*Even if the familiar is not very powerful, even with these additional senses, I can use it to avoid combat and hear things that I should not hear.* Thought Darius. He smiled and started reading the spell formation details.
After a while, tired, Darius lulled to sleep. Not even a book dropping on the floor could wake him. The door opened momentarily, and Elvira lifted the book back on the night table. She had a worrying expression, but only because things were going well. She had not gotten used to it, and it bothered her to no end. The slaves she had talked about were ecstatic that their master would pay them better than anyone else. It was not even common to receive money as a slave, not to talk about access to potions, magic books or other materials. Typically being a slave meant that slaves had to overwork every day and would not receive anything else but just food enough to survive or worse. Here slaves were treated better; people treated them better on the streets and in stores because they had proper clothing and gear. Only the nobility treated their best-educated slaves like this, so nobody complained. When Elvira had talked to Jurid and Trewan, they had both said that their men were mesmerised by the quality of the items and gold they would get whenever they completed master's requests. Albeit they had to pay for their gear and food mostly themselves, they could have freedom of choice and spend money as they seemed fit. Despite the master being alone and very young, some of the slaves were becoming almost fanatics to make sure nothing would happen to Darius. Although it was a bit difficult to ensure his safety because Darius kept disappearing all the time, sometimes for weeks. One simple mistake could ruin their better-than-expected lives.
Still, Elvira was scared. She hoped Jurid and Trewan didn't boast so openly about their benefits to slaves. If news would spread too much, even the nobility could complain about the too-good treatment of the slaves. Elvira sighed. "One more thing to remember." She collected the laundry and gave it to a household slave. She could hear slaves laughing downstairs like usual at this hour. *Maybe I am overthinking again* she thought and decided to go to sleep.
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